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View Full Version : Lee 358-125-RF for 9mm?



rondog
11-30-2015, 10:41 PM
I have this mold I bought for .38's & .357's, but is there any reason I can't use it in my 9mm Luger autoloaders too? I made a dozen test rounds, sized .358 and seated to the top of the crimp groove to clear the leade. Pistol cycles them fine, haven't shot any yet. 125-128gr over 4.0gr of W231.

Vann
11-30-2015, 10:53 PM
No, it should do fine. You may want to lower your starting load a bit, I don't have a manual handy but isn't around 4.3 grains of 231 max for a 125 gr bullet. I may be wrong just going by memory. It never hurts to start low and work up with something you're not sure about.

Vann

tazman
11-30-2015, 10:53 PM
Many people do this and have excellent results with it. You should be fine with it.

lightload
11-30-2015, 10:54 PM
It should be ok. Show us a picture of the loaded round.

Bzcraig
12-01-2015, 01:00 AM
My favorite load for the Lee 356 124 is 4gr of 231, shoots and cycles well in 3 of my nines so I can't imagine it not working well for you.

A pause for the COZ
12-01-2015, 01:05 AM
yup they will work. I shot a bunch of them in my 9's until I got a new mold.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d66/Kelly2215/100_9252_zps2d2f017b.jpg

rondog
12-01-2015, 01:16 AM
Cool, thanks! That's exactly what my rounds look like too. I had to seat them again, to the top of the crimp groove. Had 'em crimped in the middle of the groove and they were contacting the rifling and sticking. Cycle fine now.

krag35
12-01-2015, 02:03 AM
That's the boolit I run in my 9mms. I use blue Dot, and it works fine.

rondog
12-01-2015, 02:26 AM
That's the boolit I run in my 9mms. I use blue Dot, and it works fine.
Awesome, glad to hear it! Good to know I can use one mold across three calibers. Thanks all!

elvasek
12-02-2015, 12:11 AM
This is the boolit that I was finally able to get to work in my 9's CZ and Baretta 92 had to load short for the CZ's. The main issue I found was making an case expander to open the case far enough to not swedge the boo lit down and maintain a .358 after seating and pulling a boolit.

Shiloh
12-02-2015, 08:06 PM
Yep.

Use starting load. I think I backed mine off 5%. This boolit sits deeper in the case.
shoots very well for me. 4.2 gr Unique IIRC.

Shiloh

mdi
12-03-2015, 02:06 PM
As all the fellers above answered, yep, a good 9mm bullet. I have a Lee 6 hole mold that I use and feed all my .38s, .357 Mag., and 9mms. Some stay plain old lead and some are PCed (mine are red too! :mrgreen:)...

bedbugbilly
12-03-2015, 08:14 PM
I bought that mold a couple of years ago just to try in the 9mm. Unfortunately, when the mold arrived it was a complete disaster. Either it was made on a Monday or after a long office party . . . misaligned cavities, alignment pins not installed correctly . . . a real mess. I finally gave up on it after Lee tried to tell me it was "my fault". (I emailed photos of it to the vendor and they passed them on. I was so #@$%@# I refused to send it back on my dime and just "wrote it off".)

That's a good looking boolit though and I would think it would work great as others have said. It's nice when you have a boolit that will serve a multi purpose in the 9mm as well as 38s, 357s, etc.